Hearing Protection Act Still Stalled by Speaker Paul Ryan

AP/Cliff OwenHouse28 Nov 2017

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) shelved the Hearing Protection Act two days after the heinous Las Vegas shooting, and it remains so.

The Act was introduced on January 9, 2017. It removes suppressors from the auspices of the National Firearms Act (1934), thereby eliminating the $200 federal tax, fingerprint, photo, and registration requirements currently tied to suppressor acquisition.

Suppressors were not used in the Las Vegas attack. Nevertheless, just hours after the attack, Hillary Clinton tweeted her opposition to suppressors and suggested more lives would have been lost if gunman Stephen Paddock had used the devices:

The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots.

Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.

Clinton used the Hollywood language of “silencer” to describe suppressors. This is one of the left’s go-to linguistic ploys, used to give readers the impression that suppressors actually silence guns. In reality, suppressors simply eliminate the initial, ear-piercing wave that emanates from the end of a barrel when a round is fired. The gunshot can still be heard, but with the ear-damaging aspects reduced or removed.

The Hearing Protection Act was nearing a Floor vote in the House when Clinton issued her tweet. Paul Ryan shelved the Act the next day, and it remains shelved even now.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.